The Strengths Approach

A strengths-based resource for sharing power and creating change Over the years St Luke's has provided training and consultancy services in strengths-based practice to thousands of human service workers and hundreds of organisations.
Pivotal to the strengths approach is the principle of equal partnership between people - 'power-with'. This dynamic principle acknowledges that people are the experts on their lives and the rightful drivers of their own change processes.
In The Strengths Approach principal trainer and author, Wayne McCashen, gathers together the material that is explored in these trainings. He clearly and comprehensively describes the ideas, values, beliefs, and frameworks that help create respectful and socially-just ways of working with people.

This book is full of invaluable practice wisdom gathered over many years and anecdotes and examples of strengths-based practice in action. The book explores:
Principles, skills, tools and frameworks
Power-with and power-over
Labelling
Strengths and exceptions
Pictures of the future
The column approach
Client-owned recording
Supervision
Community building
Organisational culture
...and much more.

The following is a short extract from the opening chapter:
When asked the question, 'What sort of society do you want?' most people describe qualities such as social harmony, peace, justice, respect, sharing, mutual support and purpose. When thinking about this, people often imagine a society different to the one they observe and experience. The impetus to do this comes from experiencing and observing what happens when these qualities are not present.
However, the capacity to imagine what 'could be' is made richly possible by our lived experience-people's personal experience and observation of what happens when respect, collaboration, inclusion, justice and support are present. In other words, people have aspirations that are made possible more by their positive experiences than their negative ones. These experiences are lived every day in communities, groups, neighbourhoods, families, workplaces, schools, clubs, other organisations or institutions, as well as in random encounters, lateral ties and informal links.
The connection between people's strengths represented through real stories of lived experience and their aspirations for something better, is the key to every successful action for change. It is crucial to hope and an essential characteristic of the strengths approach.
A must for social workers, educators, governments, community groups, organisations, businesses, families, teams and anyone interested in socially-just ways of sharing power and creating change.
St Luke's Innovative Resources gratefully acknowledges the generous support of the Helen Macpherson Smith Trust in the publication of this book.

Wayne McCashen is a senior trainer and consultant for St Luke's Anglicare providing training and consultancy services on strengths-based practice throughout the world.
His many years experience in human services includes youth work, community development, family work, staff supervision and management.
Wayne is a leader in the development and articulation of the strengths approach. He has written material on strengths-based pratise that is used internationally.
Wayne is co-author of a card based resource called Name the Frame: reminders for building peaceful, socially-just decisions.
He is also the author of Communities of Hope: a strengths-based resource for building community.